Podcast: Kunst og litteratur

Kunst og litteratur is a conversation series led by visual artist and writer Lotte Konow Lund. In these conversations, we will, among other things, get closer to how and why visual artists write, and to authors who approach visual art in their work.

The conversations are led by Lotte Konow Lund, and take place in the so-called Festsalen in the historic ground-floor premises of Oslo Kunstforening. Konow Lund is an engaged voice in the Norwegian art public sphere and has, through many projects, contributed to highlighting various artistic practices—such as in the series she hosted for a long time in Morgenbladet, later published in book form in 2021 under the title Om kunst – 25 kunstnersamtaler (Forlaget Oktober).

Lotte Konow Lund (b. 1967) is a visual artist and professor at KHiO. She has previously held solo exhibitions at several Norwegian art museums such as Lillehammer Kunstmuseum (2016), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (2016), and Vigelandmuseet (2011). Konow Lund has published the books Om kunst – 25 kunstnersamtaler (Forlaget Oktober, 2021) and Dagbøkene 2014 – 2016 (Teknisk Industri, 2016), and in 2025 she had a major solo exhibition at KODE, Bergen.

Bente Sætrang is one of Norway’s most renowned textile artists. In the conversation, she talks about her life and work as a craft artist, about how the experience of color and dyeing can be transferred to the book format, and about how the cookbook genre inspired her to create a book about color.

Bente Sætrang (b. 1946) is a textile artist who lives and works in Oslo. She was educated in the textile department at the former Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole in Oslo (SHKS) and at the art academy in Poznań, Poland, under Professor Magdalena Abakanowicz. Sætrang was Norway’s first professor in textile craft at the Statens høgskole for kunsthåndverk og design and led the textile program from 1987 to 1993. She has held several major solo exhibitions, including at Kunstnerforbundet and Bomuldsfabriken in Arendal. The National Museum in Oslo and KODE in Bergen presented a major retrospective of her work in 2004. Her works have been acquired by the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, KODE – Kunstmuseene i Bergen, Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Oslo Municipality, the Telenor Art Collection, Arts Council Norway, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She has completed public art commissions for, among others, Norges Bank, Haukeland Hospital, The Norwegian Radium Hospital, and the Research Park (Forskningsparken). In 2016, she received the Rune Brynestad Memorial Grant. Kokebok for indigosoler was published in 2023.

Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or via Kunstpodden.no.

Visual artist and writer Synnøve Persen and award-winning translator and art historian Ika Kaminka meet in conversation about translation from Sámi and Japanese – between words in images and words in characters.

Synnøve Persen recently published the poetry collection Balvvat bullet = Skyene brenner, about nine of her Sámi foremothers, tracing back to the year 1630. Ika Kaminka translates fiction and poetry from Japanese and English, and has just completed her fifteenth translation of Haruki Murakami. In the conversation at Oslo Kunstforening, Kaminka will take as her starting point her translation of Hyllest til halvmørket (1933), written by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. The book was first published in Norway in 2014, and explores the transition from traditional Japan to a new society marked by the white light of the West.

Synnøve Persen (b. 1950) is a writer and visual artist from Porsanger in Finnmark. In her abstract paintings, the northern landscape is present in colors, lines, air, and space; this landscape is also reflected in her poetic texts, originally written in Northern Sámi, her mother tongue. Most of her texts have been translated into Norwegian by the author herself, but also into Finnish, Estonian, Icelandic, English, Spanish, and more.

Ika Kaminka (b. 1958) is an art historian and translator and has worked as a freelance translator since 2000. She translates fiction and poetry from Japanese and English, and art-related nonfiction primarily from English. She has just completed her fifteenth translation of Haruki Murakami, and has also translated three books by the feminist author Hiromi Itō. She has translated catalogue texts and similar material for numerous Norwegian art institutions. In 2012, she was awarded the Bastian Prize for outstanding literary translation, in 2021 the Norwegian Fiction Translation Fund Prize, and in 2023 the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation.

Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or via Kunstpodden.no.

Lotte Konow Lund in conversation with Fatou Åsbakk and Jørn Ljunggren – on class, cultural reproduction, and inequalities in the art field.

Lotte Konow Lund speaks with Åsbakk about the book Været og uvirksomheten (2020) and the film Fotnoter fra Fattighuset (2023), and with Ljunggren about class, which is also the title of his forthcoming book, Klasse – en innføring (2024).

Fatou Åsbakk works with film and text, and her debut novel Været og uvirksomheten tells the story of Ådne, an educated academic who once studied at the Sorbonne, but now mostly just exists—getting through the days. Jørn Ljunggren is a sociologist and in recent years has been invited several times to speak within the art field, based on his research, including on cultural reproduction. What are his thoughts on art, class, and inequality in the cultural sector? The bridge between the two projects is Åsbakk’s film Fotnoter fra Fattighuset, which follows her mother, Astrid Åsbakk, in her voluntary work at Fattighuset.

Fatou Åsbakk (b. 1984) holds a master’s degree in visual art from Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo, and has previously exhibited at venues such as Destiny’s Atelier, Kunstnernes Hus, Kunsthall Oslo, and Atelier Nord. In 2020, she made her literary debut with the novel Været og uvirksomheten, published by Kolon forlag.

Jørn Ljunggren (b. 1980) is a researcher on inequality at OsloMet, where he works on power and inequality related to various dimensions such as class, gender, geography, and minority positions. Ljunggren has published a number of national and international scholarly articles on social inequality and has edited several books, including Klassebilder (2010), Oslo – ulikhetenes by (2017), and Arbeiderklassen (2021).

Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or via Kunstpodden.no.

What does language mean for how we perceive an image? Can we look at images without being influenced by language? And is there a language inside every new artwork just waiting to emerge and tell us something we didn’t know? What comes first, the image or the words?

These are some of the questions discussed in the conversation between Lotte Konow Lund and Marit Paasche, art historian and writer, and Silje Linge Haaland, visual artist and poet. Paasche recently published the book Søvn og lykke. Norsk kunst og det moderne gjennombruddet, and Linge Haaland released the poetry collection Den løseste delen av verden in 2023 – both to great critical acclaim.

Marit Paasche (b. 1971) holds a PhD in art history from NTNU and works as an independent researcher, writer, curator, and critic. She is currently in the spotlight with her new book Søvn og lykke. Norsk kunst og det moderne gjennombruddet(Universitetsforlaget), which has received excellent reviews and considerable attention. In 2019, she published Hannah Ryggen. Threads of Defiance, released by Thames and Hudson and the University of Chicago Press. The book was named one of the year’s best by Professor Marina Warner in Times Literary Supplement, and both The New York Timesand Weekendavisen (Denmark) selected it as one of the best art books of 2019.

Silje Linge Haaland (b. 1984) is a writer and visual artist educated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam), the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Städelschule (Frankfurt), and the Academy of Writing (Bergen). Linge Haaland works with image and text in the form of video, sculpture, sound, and installations. Recent exhibitions include In Extenso Art Space (Clermont-Ferrand, France), Gammel Strand (Copenhagen), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Bærum), and Papay Gyro Nights (Tokyo). In 2021, she debuted with the poetry collection Desperasjonsanimasjon (Gyldendal), followed by Den løseste delen av verden (Gyldendal) in 2023—both critically acclaimed. Since her debut, she has given numerous readings and published texts across various platforms in the fields of art and literature.

Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or via Kunstpodden.no.

How to use books? Listen to Lotte Konow Lund in conversation with Elise Storsveen – about the books that matter to her and how she uses them in her work as both an artist and curator.

Visual artist Elise Storsveen is known for her large-scale textile works, but she is also a book collector and curator, with broad knowledge of many different types of books. This has resulted in a number of exhibition projects that have sparked enthusiasm and interest, and left a lasting mark on the Norwegian art scene.

Elise Storsveen (b. 1969) is a visual artist and curator, educated at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry and the Norwegian National Academy of Fine Arts in Oslo. As an artist, she primarily works with collage as method and second-hand textiles as material. Her works often explore themes related to the human body, social roles, and collaboration, and take the form of installations, standalone objects, and printed fanzines. Storsveen has an extensive exhibition history and has held solo exhibitions at venues such as the Vigeland Museum (2023), Kongsberg Kunstforening (2022), and Kunstnerforbundet (2021). She has participated in group exhibitions at Bryne Meieri/Bryne Kunstforening (2024), the Museum of Textiles, Łódź, Poland (2023), the Munch Museum (2019), among others. In 2025 takes part in the group exhibition Motherhood at Trondheim Kunstmuseum.

Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or via Kunstpodden.no.